Connecting data to student success by tracking student completions

The Challenge

The two colleges within the Rancho Santiago Community College District did not have a way of tracking students completion rates and/or informing counselors and instructors when a student was close to completion. In addition, many noncredit student data elements, such as diplomas and certificates earned across the CAEP program areas, were not being reported to MIS. The District ITS office was understaffed and noncredit issues were often left incomplete.

The Solution

The solution was to allocate funding for an ITS programmer who would be dedicated solely to working on noncredit needs. Rancho Santiago Adult Education Consortium (RSAEC) hired a dedicated programmer to create and oversee a new data tracking system within Ellucian/Colleague.

Outcomes

The programmer created a new system to track high school diplomas, high school equivalencies and Career Development College Preparation (CDCP) certificates earned. Results are reported directly to MIS. In addition, the programmer created a graduation check report within Ellucian/Colleague. This report is used by the colleges' graduation specialist(s) to determine if a student is close to earning a diploma or certificate. If the student is close to completion, the graduation specialist is notified and then able to contact the counseling office, program department and/or instructors so that students can receive support services to assist them in completing their diploma and/or certificate program.

The Data

There has been an increase of reported diploma and certificate completions in MIS. There has been an increase in students returning to complete courses to earn a certificate or diploma.